Das Experiment (2001)

Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel

Starring: Moritz Bleibtreu

Based on the Stanford Prison Experiment and the book Black Box by Mario Giordano, Das Experiment follows the events of an experiment where 19 men are divided into prisoners and guards and tasked with role playing their mock occupations for two weeks.

At first the 19 strangers joke about their roles, playing hyperbolized stereotypes of how they imagine they should act. But when each realize the repercussions of their position and power they either possess or are denied, the experiement becomes something far more dangerous.

Similar events happened in the real life Stanford Prison Experiment, which was eventually cancelled after 6 days when the guards started torturing the test prisoners. Das Experiment asks, what happens if they didn’t stop? How bad can it get?

Answer: Pretty bad.

Other Notable Films by this Director: Downfall (2004), The Invasion (2007)